LONDON (Reuters) – Britain would damage its fragile economy and risk isolation if it ended its often stormy relationship with the European Union, business leaders said on Monday before critical EU budget talks later this week.

Britain’s main business lobby group urged Prime Minister David Cameron to resist growing “Eurosceptic” calls to cut the island nation’s 40-year ties with a bloc that accounts for half of its trade.

LONDON (Reuters) – Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada won a last-minute appeal on Monday against deportation from Britain to face terrorism charges in Jordan, a blow to the Conservative-led government that says he is a huge security risk.

Britain, where Qatada has been in and out of jail for seven years without charge since his arrest in 2002, had argued that a 2005 deal with Jordan and more recent diplomatic assurances would ensure that Qatada would obtain a fair trial there.

LONDON (Reuters) – A radical Muslim cleric described as an “enormous risk” to UK security won a last-minute appeal on Monday against deportation to face terrorism charges in Jordan, in a blow to Britain which has being trying to remove him for a decade.

A senior judge at a special London court said there was a risk that evidence obtained using torture may be used against Abu Qatada and he may not receive a fair trial in Jordan.

LONDON (Reuters) – He has met murderous warlords, survived death threats and brokered multi-million pound deals on the financial markets. Now the next Archbishop of Canterbury faces what many see as the near impossible task of uniting an Anglican church that risks tearing itself apart over gay marriage and women bishops.

Justin Welby, a self-deprecating figure who called himself “one of the thicker bishops in the Church of England”, inherits a bitterly divided institution struggling to find a role in an increasingly secular society.

LONDON/BRUSSELS, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Germany’s Angela Merkel
on Wednesday warned Britain not to turn its back on Europe ahead
of talks in London with Prime Minister David Cameron aimed at
overcoming divisions that threaten to block a European Union
budget deal later this month.

Cameron has said he is ready to veto the EU’s seven-year
budget and has attacked its “ludicrous” spending plans, in
comments likely to fuel a view among many in Europe that London
is drifting away from the 27-nation union.

LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Britain’s David Cameron attacked
“ludicrous” European Union budget plans on Wednesday and played
down hopes its leaders can reach a spending deal later this
month, stepping up the rhetoric before talks in London with
Germany’s Angela Merkel.

The British prime minister has threatened to veto the EU’s
seven-year budget, fuelling a perception among many in Europe
that London is casting itself adrift from the 27-nation union.

LONDON (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will try to narrow divisions that threaten to wreck a European Union budget deal and further isolate Britain from its biggest trading partner when she meets British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on Wednesday.

Cameron, under pressure after suffering a humiliating defeat in parliament at the hands of anti-European rebels in his Conservative Party, will have a working dinner with Merkel after threatening to veto the EU’s seven-year 2014-20 spending plan.

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – British industrial output fell
more sharply than expected in September, data showed on Tuesday,
reinforcing fears an incipient recovery will struggle to gather
pace.

Excluding a decline in June, due partly to an extra public
holiday, the 1.7 percent monthly fall was the biggest since
August 2009 and much bigger than the 0.6 percent decline
analysts had forecast.

LONDON (Reuters) – Giving Prime Minister David Cameron a bloody nose over Europe may have given Britain’s opposition Labour Party a short-term glow, but their lurch towards the anti-Brussels camp risks leaving them divided, isolated and lacking credibility.

After years of broadly pro-European policies, the centre-left party joined a rebellion organised by members of Cameron’s Conservatives demanding he pushes for a real-terms cut in the European Union budget at talks this month.

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Giving Prime Minister David
Cameron a bloody nose over Europe may have given Britain’s
opposition Labour Party a short-term glow, but their lurch
towards the anti-Brussels camp risks leaving them divided,
isolated and lacking credibility.

After years of broadly pro-European policies, the
centre-left party joined a rebellion organised by members of
Cameron’s Conservatives demanding he pushes for a real-terms cut
in the European Union budget at talks this month.